codespellfandomcom-20200214-history
Alhanalem the Absolute
Background Alhanalem the Absolute is a male water djinni and professional cryomancer and educator. He is the youngest of four children, and his parents' only son. Like most water djinn, he was born in the middle of the Saha'i desert. Specifically, his family lived 100km south of the city of Saha'i, in a small trading post that serviced many of the smaller farming communities. The trading post, lovingly named "The Trading Post", had a population of seventy-two, and half of the people living there were blood relatives to the other half. In a process not unlike the importation of cheese and pants, husbands and wives would occasionally be brought in to avoid too many crossed eyes and bucked teeth. Alhanalem's parents were water merchants who would magically draw moisture from the desert air and sell it to the various settlements that could reach the Trading Post. The collection of water to sustain life is a sacred duty to the water djinn, and it is forbidden by tradition to profit from its sale and collection. As such, Alhanalem's parents provided their son with a happy, healthy, and humble upbringing. A Higher Purpose Alhanalem was beyond gifted. His strength lay not in his raw power, but the skill at which he was able to manipulate water. His sisters could draw rivers from the dry desert air, but Alhanalem could pull the clouds from the sky itself. By the time he was thirteen years old, his parents' business had grown out of control. The city of Saha'i had exploded in population, which was dangerous, since the city was quite literally in the centre of a huge desert. In order to quench the population's thirst, the city contracted out the work of every hydromancer for a thousand kilometres. Alhanalem's parents were of course no exception, especially since they had gained such a reputation for being fair, consistent and, most importantly, cheap. They were offered money, and they stayed. They were offered luxurious living quarters, and they stayed. They were offered an education for their children, and they went. Alhanalem would do great things with an education, Alhanalem's parents said. He had a higher purpose. The Big City When Alhanalem's family arrived in Saha'i it was the most fantastical thing they'd ever seen. Over a million people, countless animals and buildings. A fascinating exchange of commerce and ideas. There was a bit of a smell, but over time it grew on them. Alhanalem's father assumed the position of Grand Hydromancer and his mother was appointed Master Plumber. She begain work on creating a series of pipes and waterways that would distribute water from the city's highest point, which of course was the palace, and deposit it on the city's lower levels. Their work would continue for years building on the existing(but limited) Saha'i infrastructure. Alhanalem was educated at the city's most prestigious secondary education facility, which was conveniently located on the ground floor of the palace, next to the churro stand, and behind the pizzeria. Regardless, he had some of the greatest magical teachers in the world, Padaghan the Intense, Mordigaunt the Immaterial, and Anghammarad the Immovable were all among his teachers in the world of practical magic. In these classes, he showed above average aptitude, but not very far above. His schooling was far more competitive than his parents had anticipated. It was in mathematics and the sciences he excelled. He consistently failed the physical education portion of his schooling, whilst receiving all manner of awards for academia. He dabbled in the arts, but ice sculptures are hard to do in the middle of a desert. You Can Never Go Home Again In the spring of his 18th year, he was awarded a full scholarship to Saha'i University. A school so prestigious the churro stand was next to IT, and not the other way round. Before he began his studies, his family decided to take a trip back home to see how the Trading Post had gotten along without them. By this time his sisters had all gotten jobs as hydromancers or plumbers for the city, and couldn't take the time away from their work, so Alhanalem and his parents set off without them to visit the home they had first built together. It wasn't easy leaving the city, the only roads that were maintained lead to Saha'i's main customers and the Trading Post wasn't exactly a major trading partner. When they finally arrived at the Trading Post, it was unrecognizable. Everything was in a state of disrepair, even the tumbleweeds could've used some sprucing up. There was only one shop left open in town; all the others had been boarded up. Once inside, they asked the shopkeeper what had happened. Their ancestral home had become a wasteland without them. The price of water skyrocketed, and there were no hydromancers left. They had all been bought up by the city. All around the countryside, settlements were consolidating, moving or just collapsing. Villages that had weathered a thousand thousand sandstorms couldn't hope to withstand a drought that would never end. The shopkeeper mused that he had often wondered how many villages would disappear overnight without the magic of hydromancy, and now thanks to the Saha'i City Council, he had his answer. They left the next morning. Coming of Age Alhanalem quickly rose to the top of his class in arcane arts and sciences. He routinely defeated opponents in friendly combat(a regular part of athletic education throughout the world), and could out-calculate many of the city's top mathematicians. He took to games of strategy and intrigue and became famous for being the only person to defeat Salsiccia University's 'Amazing Mechanical Computer' in a game of chess. He received a Bachelor of Arcane Arts and Sciences(H.BAAS.) when he was twenty-one(a full year early) and began his master's thesis immediately thereafter. Shortly before he submitted his study on the merits of theoretical cosmology to the director of the Saha'i Physical Laboratory, a huge portion of the city exploded. Saha'i had begun to break under its own weight. Pipes that had been in place for decades, and aqueducts that had stood for millenia crumbled and buckled and burst, pouring rivers of water out into the city. Steam erupted from beneath the sewers and the city's roads cracked as gaslines ruptured and powerlines were uprooted. The patchwork of machines and devices that supplied Saha'i's citizens with creature comforts was dying. Springing to action quickly, the city guards used magic to minimize the damage and evacuate citizens in affected areas. Looking down from the palace, Alhanalem saw the pattern of destruction and jumped down to the city streets. Following his senses, he determined the source of the destruction to be a now ancient water pump that had been forgotten underneath the city's merchant quarter. Threatening to boil over even more, the pump went into full-meltdown, venting septic fumes and hot steam through the cracks in the streets above it. Seeing no other alternative, Alhanalem cast a powerful freezing spell to drain the merchant quarter of thermic energy, triangulate it to a single point in space, and express it as a skyward moving column of pure heat. The city was saved from true disaster, and except for a few passing birds, nobody was injured. But the damage had been done. The Saha'i city council ordered the poorest two-tenths of the city to leave and resettle no closer than a two day walk from the city walls. Built in ancient times, the city was not equipped to house as many people as it now did, and it wasn't in a good location to supply its citizens with the amenities and luxuries such as running water and electricity that had become commonplace since its construction. The price of bread and fruit had become ludicrous in recent months even while the price of water fell to almost nothing. Saha'i would continue to build, but immigration would no longer go unchecked, and the council would invest real time and money into making the city livable, instead of trying to cram as many taxpayers into one space as possible. To assist in the relocation of a huge portion of the city's population, Alhanalem's parents resigned from their positions. Their work in Saha'i was important and it allowed them to grow their family and prosper, but they belonged in the desert. Without them and their hydromancy, the rural areas had died out, and without the rural areas, the city became bloated and impossible to maintain. Alhanalem and his sisters remained in the city. He needed to finish his studies, and his sisters needed to finish building their home. Absolutely Fabulous Alhanalem became a doctor in the Arcane Arts and Sciences just before his 27th year. He had been an amazing and dedicated student, and his academic prowess was such that he was rewarded with a full professorship in the field of theoretical physics, which Alhanalem had just invented that year. As the head of the department of theoretical physics at the Saha'i University, Alhanalem leads classes in exploratory missions to both the south and north poles of the world where experiments can be performed in extreme temperatures. He was awarded the title "the Absolute" when he demonstrated his most controversial theory, that there was a temperature which he called "Almost Certainly Zero". In a scientific demonstration, he was able to use magic to draw the heat from a sample of chemically distilled water and a giant pie. The water turned to ice and was measured with a variety of instruments which confirmed that no more movement was taking place within the sample, and that the ice was neither losing additional heat or slowing down further. The pie was ruined. The attending scientists and engineers were so amazed he was thereafter known as "Alhanalem the Absolute" because his scientific arguments were so absolutely convincing. Modern Times Despite his position as a professor, he mostly leaves the day-to-day teaching to his assistants and only steps into the classroom to prove a new theory or principle. He attends all field-trips and research outings, but if he's ever graded a paper, no evidence survives to prove it happened. He currently lives full-time in the city of New Ruin, where he serves as a visiting professor at New Ruin University, propagating his theories on physics and engineering and occasionally stopping the world from ending using his awesome magical powers.